This lecture will explore Fyodor Dostoevsky's association of Catholicism with subversive conspiracies and armed resistance-an association informed by his experience in a Siberian prison with Polish insurrectionists, by his reading of various accounts depicting the 1863 Uprising in Warsaw, and by his witnessing transnational collaboration among Russian, Polish, Italian, and French revolutionaries in Geneva. His linking of Catholicism to socialism (The Idiot and A Writer's Diary) as well as his famous image of the Grand Inquisitor (The Brothers Karamazov) will be discussed in connection with his fears about the vibrant appeal of "the Catholic idea" for Westernized Russians as well as concerns regarding papal-sponsored unrest in the Russian borderlands.

Past Events

Bridging Cultures: Jesuits from the "Russian" Society in Early 19th Century America

A Lecture by Daniel L. Schlafly, Professor of History and Director of the Russian and East European Area Studies Program

Event Details: January 23, 3:00 p.m., Center for Global Citizenship

Catherine the Great protected the Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire from the general suppression in 1773, and she and her successors encouraged it to develop there. Before and after the general restoration of the Society in 1814, the "Russian" Society sent fourteen Jesuits to the United States. These European Jesuits successfully adapted to the quite different American setting, and made a crucial contribution to the American Society and the American Catholic Church as educators, administrators, pastors, and missionaries.

The Intellectual Benefits of Internationalizing Research and Curriculum:

A Workshop for Faculty and Graduate Students

Event Details: November 7, 3:00 p.m., Center for Global Citizenship

Whether it is history, law, medicine, or any other discipline, scholarship today requires incorporating knowledge that extends not only beyond one's own academic field but also beyond one's own cultural assumptions. Panelists will discuss the very substantial intellectual advantages of taking a global perspective in pursuing research goals as well as in teaching. It brings about a deeper understanding of cultural difference which, in turn, helps to formulate innovative questions and produce new knowledge.

Panelists:

Henry M. Ordower, J.D., Professor of Law, past Co-Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law

Cantigas de Santa Maria is a collection of canticles, composed in Galician-Portuguese between 1252 and 1284 at the Court of King Alfonso X the Wise of Spain. The canticles include devotional and liturgical poems as well as narrative stories including over 350 Marian miracles. Many are illustrated and set to music. The miracles address numerous medical issues and provide precious insights into religious, cultural and intellectual spheres of contemporary life. Their visual, musical and poetic rhetoric illuminates a variety of interactions among Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

A team of Tibetan Buddhist monks will create a sand mandala at Saint Louis University from Wednesday, Aug. 27, to Friday, Aug. 29, in the Center for Global Citizenship. Parking is available in the large parking garage on the south side of Laclede Avenue.

From all the artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism, that of painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite. In Tibetan this art is called dul-tson-kyil-khor, which literally means "mandala of colored powders." Millions of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of days or weeks. Formed of a traditional prescribed iconography that includes geometric shapes and a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols,the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants.

11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27: Opening Ceremony. The monks will chant prayers and begin work on the mandala. Then they will work until 7 p.m.

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28: The monks will continue work on the mandala at the Center for Global Citizenship. At 7:30 p.m., the monks will give a free talk to the public in the Loyola Room of Jesuit Hall.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29: The monks will continue work on the mandala until the closing ceremony at 4 p.m.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Theological Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Mission and Ministry, Center for Service and Community Engagement, Simon Recreation Center, Center for Catholic Studies and the Center for Intercultural Studies.

This special event is free and open to the public.

The Sochi Olympics: Promise and Perils: A Roundtable

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University, Russian & East European Area Studies, Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Department of Political Science, Department of History, and the Center for International Studies present a roundtable entitled "The Sochi Olympics: Promise and Perils" Friday, February 21, 2014, at 3:10p.m. at the Center for Global Citizenship Seminar room 124A.

When Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the ancient Greek Olympic Games in 1896, the hope was that they would promote peaceful and friendly relations among the world's nations. Everyone would play by the same rules, with respect for fairness, and without any discrimination. This dream is still alive, and today billions of people are able to participate in the remarkable excitement of this global spectacle. But precisely because the Games are so prominent, they are also invariably politicized as partisan ambitions, ethnic tensions, historical resentments, issues of human rights violations, and terrorist threats are injected into its peaceful rivalries. The panelists will comment on all these themes from different disciplinary perspectives.

Global Perspectives on Affirmative Action: Afghanistan and United States

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents an international debate entitled "Global Perspectives on Affirmative Action: Afghanistan and United States" Thursday, February 6, 2014, at 8:30a.m. at the Center for Global Citizenship Auditorium.

As part of Black History Month, the Cross Cultural Center, the Center for Intercultural Studies, and the Center for Global Citizenship invite the Saint Louis University community to an international debate on Affirmative Action. This live linkup between Saint Louis University students and students at Kabul University, Karwan University, Kardan University and Kabul Polytechnic University, in Kabul, Afghanistan will take place live in the Center for Global Citizenship auditorium on Thursday, February 6, at 8:30 a.m. The event will be re-broadcast at 7:00 p.m. on the same day. Using for format of British Parliamentary Debate, the event will explore the question: “Based on the U.S. history with Affirmative Action, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan should implement affirmative action policies to ensure that Afghan women and marginalized groups have the educational and employment opportunities throughout Afghan society.” The debate will be judged by Professor Mike Wolff, Dean of Saint Louis University School of Law, and Richard Harvey, Associate Professor of Psychology, in collaboration with debate judges in Kabul. This event is open to the Saint Louis University community. Coffee and refreshments will be provided.

In this talk, I will describe my recent research in Uganda where I studied the experiences of child soldiers who had lived through the ordeal of being forced to kill and injure people. I will discuss a memoir written about one of them, Keitetsi, entitled Child Soldier (2005) that brings these experiences into focus. Taking an intercultural perspective, I will reveal its socio-political context, its use of ambiguity, the puzzling question of authorship, and the ways in which redemptive or inauthentic values were transposed onto the narrative.

Charity in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a Forum entitled "Charity in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions" Friday, November 22, 2013, at 3:15 p.m. at the Conference Room 124A, Center for Global Citizenship (formerly Bauman Hall).

Participants:

Julia Lieberman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Saint Louis University

Philip R. Gavitt, Ph.D., Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University

Luke Yarbrough, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History, History Department at Saint Louis University

Tzedakah, Caritas and Zakat are three terms often lumped together under one word-charity, as they refer to how Judaism, Christianity and Islam have historically addressed the needs of the more vulnerable members of their respective societies. Yet, behind these three terms stand very different histories and practices. This panel investigates the diverse attitudes towards wealth and poverty in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions.

This event is part of the International Education Week at Saint Louis University

Building Multicultural Bridges & Influencing Social Change Through the Arts

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents "Building Multicultural Bridges & Influencing Social Change Through the Arts," a discussion with Igal Ezraty and Rawda Sliman, Artistic Directors of the Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa, Israel, Wednesday, November 20, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. at the Conference Room 124A, Center for Global Citizenship (formerly Bauman Hall).

The Arab-Hebrew Theatre is home to two theatre companies that produce plays, both together and separately, in Hebrew and Arabic, with the participation of Jewish and Arab actors. The Arab-Hebrew Theatre is unique, both for its social and political mission; reaching out to diverse audiences to promote greater cultural understanding between Arab and Jewish communities both locally in Jaffa and across the world. This is a theatre where "multi-culturalism" is much more than a phrase, but is a fact of life and ideology with a unique mission and theatrical language.

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The event is part of the International Education Week at Saint Louis University, and was made possible thanks to collaboration with the New Jewish Theatre and the Jewish Community Relations Council in St. Louis.

The Idea of Global Citizenship

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a Forum entitled "The Idea of Global Citizenship" Friday, October 25, 2013, at 3:30 p.m. at the Conference Room 124A, Center for Global Citizenship (formerly Bauman Hall).

Opening remarks:

Michal Jan Rozbicki, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies, Saint Louis University

Successful dialogue among different cultures is one of the greatest challenges of our time. While technology and globalization have made the world more interdependent than ever, people do not live in the world but in their local cultures. Because cultures provide collective identity and make sense of life by supplying order and meaning for people's experiences, they often resist outside influences. On the other hand, cultures constantly adapt to new circumstances caused by encounters with otherness. The forum will explore the ways in which intercultural dialogue - one that acknowledges differences, attempts to gain insight into others' beliefs, and examines concepts and assumptions that frame peoples' perceptions of the Other-can be pursued, and how obstacles can be overcome.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture entitled "Cultural Differences in Negotiating, Executing, and Watching Political Debates: A Comparison of the United States, the Republic of Georgia, and South Korea," by Dr. Diana Bartelli Carlin, Associate Vice President for Graduate Education and Professor of Communication at Saint Louis University. The lecture will take place on Friday, April 26, 2013, at 3:00pm in Adorjan Hall, room 142.

Political debates have been a part of U.S. culture since James Madison and James Monroe debated for a Congressional seat in 1788. However, televised presidential debates were first introduced in 1960 and had a 16-year hiatus before becoming a regular part of U.S. elections. With the advent of new democracies throughout the world, the development of debate traditions quickly followed. Political communication researchers have examined the similarities and differences among U.S. debate formats and those of new democracies. This presentation examines research Professor Diana Carlin has conducted in the Republic of Georgia and South Korea on political debates, and compares the debate traditions and viewer research findings.

Preserving Cultural Diversity while Seeking Economic and Political Unity: The Case of Europe

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a forum with Jean-Philippe Pernet, the Director of International Programs at the Institut Catholique d'Arts et Métiers, Toulouse, France and Michal Jan Rozbicki, the Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies. The forum will take place on Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at 3:00pm in Des Peres Hall's International Student Lounge.

The 2009 UNESCO world report on cultural diversity has stated that "globalization and the liberalization of the goods and services market will lead to cultural standardization, reinforcing existing imbalances between cultures." Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard University has claimed that "the clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war." This forum will look at Europe's current economic and political environment to explore how a better understanding of cultures and cultural identities can avoid increasing imbalances and tensions between cultures.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Andrea Borella, an Italian anthropologist of religion, and author of Gli Amish (The Amish) and 101 modi per allenare la fede e lo spirito (101 ways for training faith and spirit). He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropological Sciences from the University of Turin, an M.A. in Political Sciences (2001), from the University of Milan, and an M.A. in Anthropology and Ethnology (2007), from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. The lecture will take place on Friday, November 16, 2012, at 3:00pm in Adorjan Hall, Room 142.

This lecture focuses on the relationship between Amish eschatology and the rules of Amish tradition, that is the Ordnung. The argument is that, according to Amish worldview, the purpose of the Ordnung is not properly soteriological. Indeed, the laws of Amish communities are not considered as directly revealed by God, but can be seen as the cultural instrument that the Amish utilize for keeping their community aloof from the "outside world." This paper is based on an anthropological research conducted in the Old Order Amish congregation of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Katrina D. Thompson, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Saint Louis University, entitled "'The Postures are lascivious and infamous': Conflicting Dance Cultures and the Sexualization of Black Womanhood." The lecture will take place on Friday, October 26, 2012, at 3:00pm in Adorjan Hall, Room 142.

Dance was a cultural signifier that played starkly different roles in the societies of West Africa and Western Europe during the era of slavery. Using travel narratives from the sixteenth to nineteenth century, and tying together dance culture in both Europe and Africa, Dr. Thompson examines how Western Europeans, informed by their own cultural and social norms, transformed West African dance performances into eroticized and exoticized scenes for consumption in a society increasingly structured by race.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Olubukola A. Gbadegesin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Saint Louis University, entitled "Searching for Black Histories in Colonial-Era Photographs." The lecture will take place on Friday, September 28, 2012, at 3:00pm in Xavier Hall, Conference Room 332.

Most of our information about colonial African histories comes from written colonial records that often omit the voices of colonized African subjects. These records, however, involve Eurocentric privileging of the written word over other equally valid sources of knowledge. It is important to pursue these alternative sources because they often offer more nuanced accounts of contested histories. This talk discusses an ongoing research project that underscores how important images were to various facets of the colonial enterprise, and attempts to recover the photographic work and life history of an important transnational African photographer.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Tatyana Permyakova, Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at the Higher School of Economics in Perm, Russia, entitled "Intercultural Communication Metaphors." The lecture will take place on Friday, April 13, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. in Adorjan Hall, room 142.

Dr. Permyakova is currently Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Her research focuses on the study of metaphoric representation of intercultural communication on the basis of the English and Russian languages in academic and research literature. The main objective is to approach the major concepts of the discipline through the “intercultural metaphor” prism, and to reevaluate the understanding of intercultural communication impact in modern Russian- and English-speaking humanities. Methodologically, the project is based on the integrative methodology of contemporary communication studies that encompasses not only the most advanced approaches of linguistic (semantic, definition, morphological analyses, thesaurus modeling) and discourse research (stylistic, textual analyses, contextualization) but also borrows methods from a range of “bordering” humanities such as sociology and social psychology, which may help to interpret ‘fuzzy’ terms such as intercultural barrier, face negotiations, travelling languages, cultural crossroads/mirrors/windows, cultural dialogue, and communication across borders.

ATLAS WEEK Program at SLU

The Center for Intercultural Studies will be sponsoring four events at the 2012 Sam and Marilyn Fox ATLAS WEEK program. The primary goal of the Atlas Program is to increase awareness of the global issues that confront us today in an effort not only to promote discussion, but to inspire and inform action. It focuses on what we as global citizens can do to contribute to a better life for all people now and in the future.

The Cultural Narratives of Conflict, Intervention, and Peace Building: The Case of KenyaDr. George Ndege (SLU Department of History)Peace Building through Literature: South Africa and RwandaDr. Joya Uraizee (SLU Department of English)The Implementation of Reconciliation and Peace Building Efforts in Fragile States: Nigeria and SomaliaDr. Emmanuel Uwalaka (SLU Department of Political Science)

"Asserting Self Through the Arts: Black Identity in 19th-century United States and Colonial Nigeria"Tuesday, March 27, 2:15-3:30 p.m., Busch Student Center, Room 253D

Synopsis: The documentary is about three friends, two Christian idealists and one militant atheist, who agree to attempt to live in extreme poverty, on $1.25 a day, across 3 continents to discover their responsibility to the poor. The story follows them as they leave their homes in St. Louis, hitchhike across the United States, backpack across Europe and travel to Africa. The film takes a devastating turn when two of them survive a deadly plane crash in Africa, and all three must fight in their own way to finish what they started. Cosponsors: Film Studies Program, Women’s Studies Program, Global and Local Social Justice Program, Center for Intercultural Studies, the Micah Program, and Fifth Annual Africa World Documentary Film Festival

Speaker: Dr. Teruyuki TsujiDr. Teryuki Tsuji, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Center for Intercultural Studies, will speak on how religion, music, and national politics have mutually informed one another's development in the Anglophone Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, with special attention to reggae.

The Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies, Dr. Michal Jan Rozbicki will also take part in a panel discussion entitled "The Role of International Faculty in Shaping the Global Campus," sponsored by SLU International Faculty and Staff Association.

"The Role of International Faculty in Shaping the Global Campus"Tuesday, March 27, 11:00-12:15 p.m., Busch Student Center, Room 253A

Description:

In exploring the Atlas theme of empowering humanity through education and service, this one hour panel will examine the role of international faculty in shaping an increasingly global campus. Special attention will be paid to how globalization is shaping American higher education and the implications for SLU's global campus.

Moderator:

Simone Bregni, Associate Professor of Italian; President of the International Faculty and Staff Association (IFSA).

Lecture on Religion, Cultural Mixing, and Creolization in the West Indies

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Teruyuki Tsuji, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center, entitled "Sharing Mothers: Creolization and East Indians in the West Indies." The lecture will take place on Friday, February 17, at 3:00, Adorjan Hall, room 142.

Each year, on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, Hindu pilgrims crowd a Roman Catholic Church in the small town of Sparia in southern Trinidad, West Indies, passionately praying at the feet of the statue of the dark-skinned Virgin Mary, La Divina Pastora. Two weeks later, the statue's believed healing power draws a large assembly of Catholic devotees to the same church. Using the yearly Hindu and Catholic pilgrimages in the West Indian island of Trinidad as an ethnographic case, this lecture critically reflects on the relevance of concepts of cultural mixing, particularly creolization.

Lecture on Transnational Encounters

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Dr. Susanne Wiedemann, Assistant Professor with Saint Louis University's Department of American Studies, entitled "Transnational Encounters with America: German Jewish Refugees' Identity Formation in Berlin and Shanghai, 1939-1949." The lecture will take place on Friday, November 11, at 3:00, Adorjan Hall, room 142.

This lecture examines a group of German Jews who, within the span of one decade, fled Nazi Germany, found refuge in Shanghai, and emigrated to the U.S. after the end of World War II. In Shanghai, they forged hybrid, transnational identities that were shaped by the past in Europe and the present in China, by encounters with U.S. culture from afar, by the regulatory power of different immigration and citizenship laws, and by intersecting ideologies of race, ethnicity, and class. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Lecture on Art and Interculturality

The Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University presents a lecture by Joseph R. Allen, Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, on "Rewriting the Public Monument: Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese Reformulations of the European Equestrian Statue." The lecture will take place on Friday, October 14, 2011, at 3:00, Adorjan Hall, room 142.

The modernization program of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) adapted a wide range of cultural materials from Western nations, particularly Germany and France. Among those materials was European civic statuary, which was then at the height of its popularity (the so-called period of statumania). Versions of those statues, including of equestrian figures, were transferred to the new Japanese colony of Taiwan (1895-1945), where they went through further cultural transformations. These transformations continued throughout the Chinese Nationalist years, down into contemporary times. Professor Allen will examine the intercultural translations of these statues in the evolving social and political contexts of East Asia.